


porcelain heart

by Luya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU of my own lol, F/F, F/M, M/M, probably gonna be trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2018-12-19 13:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11898618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luya/pseuds/Luya
Summary: Zarkon has been defeated and Lotor seemed to have calmed down with his incessant stalking of Voltron for a while. Keith and Lance, with the help of their wingmen/women Hunk and Pidge, finally got together. But they haven't given each other their hearts...yet. Keith is the first to hand Lance the stone ruby heart. Lance knows that this means he quite literally holds Keith's heart, and if Keith's heart ever broke the stone would shatter too.But what happens when early morning Lance knocks the heart off its dresser?





	1. I handed you my porcelain heart

**Author's Note:**

> this is some shitty idea I came up with while listening to porcelain heart by beth Crowley
> 
> have fun reading

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance successfully gets the last kill of the mission and a lot of praise from the team. Afterwards, he pulls Keith aside for a little talk, and is shocked when Keith entrusts him with a responsibility too heavy for his shoulders.

Lance kept his right eye closed, gun shouldered and index finger fiddling with the trigger. The comms were silent, the occasional grunt from Shiro or Keith sounding every now and then. The Galra soldiers below them were talking or something, but the team had decided to take them out. And what better way to do that than with their number one sharpshooter?

That's what Keith said, at least. Lance hoped the rest of the team agreed. He didn't wanna be a seventh wheel. That feeling  _sucked._ Lance shook his head. That didn't matter right now, he needed to focus. Lance took in a deep breath.

And he pulled his finger back.

With a click and the familiar sound of a laser firing, Lance's gun fired. The laser hit the Galra in the chest. Lance didn't have time to gloat before he had to shoot the other Galra.

Cheers erupted throughout the comms.

"Well done, Lance!" Shiro praised. "We were right to trust you with the job!" It felt good, praise coming from Shiro himself.

"Way to go, buddy! I would high-five you, but I think I'll stay in my cockpit for now." The nervousness in Hunk's voice was unmistakable, but it honestly never left his tone. Lance laughed. "Thanks."

Pidge just gave some approving yells. She didn't necessarily say anything. She just...shouted. "Pidge, can you try speaking English instead?" Being the stubborn girl she was, Pidge began to talk fluently in Italian. Lance scoffed, making a mental note to annoy her in Spanish later.

Then Keith. When Keith's voice was made audible, a smile automatically crossed Lance's face. "Hey, well done, Lance. I'm proud of you." Lance couldn't stop grinning as he pulled himself back into the blue lion's cockpit. "Thanks, darlin'." Stuttering was heard in response, and everyone laughed.

"Alright, Lance. Save all your lovey-dovey teasing for when we get back. The castle is parked on a planet a few doboshes from here. Let's go, everyone." When the black lion kicked into movement and veered away from the Galra outpost, the other lions followed.

They ended up flying with Lance and Keith on Shiro's left and Hunk and Pidge on Shiro's right. Pidge was blabbing about how she couldn't wait to tell Matt about Lance's great aim - only so Matt could challenge him, though. Everyone was high-spirited and lighthearted as they all flew their lions into the separate hangars. Well, we assume they were all happy. Keith didn't say a word the whole way back.

~

"Good job, paladins! Especially you, Lance. I hear you made quite the shot today," Allura's smile reached from ear to ear. It genuinely made Lance blush.

"Okay, who told her before I could brag about it?" More smiles and earnest chuckles. Lance earned a shrug when he looked at Shiro. Allura laughed.

"Well, I was connected to your comms. I could hear everything you were saying, so maybe that was it," Allura smiled. Lance chuckled. "I guess so."

Allura continued with all her fancy congratulatory talk, but Lance wasn't interested. It seemed he wasn't the only one who wasn't interested, either. When Lance's blue eyes boredly trailed over to his boyfriend, he noticed Keith wasn't really listening, either. The first opportunity he got, Lance grabbed Keith's wrist and dragged him away from the bridge.

Once they were in the bedroom hallway, Lance turned around and smiled. "Sorry, but you gotta admit we were both finding that boring." Lance folded his arms, smiling when he got a small chuckle out of Keith.

"Yeah. That's Allura for you." The sparkle in Keith's navy eyes only lasted for a little before they grew distant again. Lance frowned.

"Dude, what's wrong? You've been acting weird ever since the end of the mission. Don't think I didn't notice you were ignoring us whenever you could." Lance spoke indignantly, folding his arms. Keith sighed - he'd been caught.

"I was debating whether or not to give you something. It's very important to me, and, y'know, I feel like we've been together long enough..." This made Lance's suspicions grow. He was pretty sure he knew what it was, but didn't wanna take any risks.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's okay. I'm your boyfriend, aren't I?" Lance rested his hand on Keith's shoulder, and the two exchanged a small smile.

"Wait here," Keith murmured softly. He disappeared down the hallway and into his room. 

Lance waited and waited. It had been about twenty doboshes and he was getting impatient. As he was about to go see what was taking Keith so long, the black-haired boy emerged from his room. Lance blinked, moving his gaze from his face to his hands. Keith was gently cupping something in his hands. Lance couldn't see what it was, but his heart raced. He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. He couldn't take that kind of responsibility.

 

Keith approached Lance and paused. It took him a few ticks, but he finally took a deep breath.

"Lance, I like you. I really like you. I don't know if I can say I love you, because that's a really big thing for me since I'm an orphan and all...but it can turn into love. So, to show how much I like and trust you, I want to give you this." Keith's hands opened, and a small, heart-shaped ruby rested in his palms. Lance's heart sank.

He wasn't ready for this. He'd never even been in possession of another person's core stone. What made Keith think he'd be able to take care of it? But he knew if he rejected the offer it would break Keith's heart. So he smiled and reached forward, taking the ruby heart from Keith. The shorter boy's face lit up.

"I...I don't know what to say. Nobody's ever given me their core stone before...thank you. I'll take care of it." Keith smiled and Lance slipped the ruby into his jacket pocket before wrapping Keith in a hug. Hopefully he wouldn't have to explain that his own core stone, a sapphire heart, had been broken before and was actually still fixing itself. Thankfully, Keith didn't mention it.

"It's porcelain."

"No way!"

Lance pulled away in shock. "You've never experienced heartbreak?"

"Not in love. I never met my parents so I can't exactly be sad over them, and when Shiro was gone I was just upset, not heartbroken."

Lance gulped. "I understand. I'll take care of it." Lance embraced Keith again.

_This was too big. Too big of a responsibility. A porcelain heart, given to him when he was a newbie to the core stones? Something was going to go wrong, he could tell._

 


	2. breakable but not yet broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is concerned that Keith gave Lance his core stone. Keith shrugs it off though, going about a normal training day with the team. The next morning though, something wrenches in his chest, and nothing is the same.

Keith parried a blow from the Altean training bot, quickly slipping his jacket off and throwing it aside. He thrusted his sword forward, managing to slice through the metal armour and destroy the wiring. The robot fell through the floor, and Keith shouted, "End training sequence." The training deck A.I. powered down, and Keith deactivated his bayard. He grabbed his jacket and slung it over his shoulder, before heading for the door. It opened before he got there.

Shiro stood there, and a smile crossed his face as he saw Keith.

"Keith! It's so great to see you training." Shiro's smile faded. "But it's almost bedtime. What are you doing here?"

Keith was hesitant to respond. Was he really ready to tell anyone? He'd just given his core stone to Lance, who was such a flirt he wasn't sure if it was safe. Was he prepared for Shiro's lecture? Keith decided to tell him.

"I gave Lance my core stone. Guess I needed to stop thinking about it for a while," Keith said. He shrugged his shoulders, gently pushing past him. Shiro grabbed his arm before he could continue, though.

"Hold on, Keith. That was a big decision. Are you sure it was right?" Shiro sounded concerned. But Keith was a like a little brother to him. Shiro had every reason to be worried. Keith inhaled softly through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth. He pried his wrist away, letting it drop to his side, bayard still clenched in his fist.

"No, not really. But I really like Lance, Shiro. I trust him. I think he'll take care of it." Keith gave Shiro a reassuring smile, then headed to his room to hang up his bayard back with his armour.

Shiro sighed as Keith walked off. The boy had always been impulsive, but he never handled his core stone. Something was going to go wrong.

~

Keith dodged the Galra lasers with skilled movements of the controls, spinning around and firing his own laser to blow up the ship. He smirked briefly and looked around. Lance and Hunk were engaged with a larger battleship, firing lasers at the ion cannon. Shiro and Pidge were dodging fighters, shouting at each other through the comms. That was when a Galra laser shot at Keith.

Instinctively, Keith jerked his arms forward. The lion jolted forward, narrowly missing the laser. At that time, Lance decided he would move backwards. The laser hit his lion with such force he went flying...into the wall.

The simulation disappeared. Allura and Coran stood on the observation deck, not impressed with the red lion.

"Keith! Had that been a real laser, Blue would probably be dysfunctional right now!" Lance's voice rippled through the comms. He sounded more amused than angry, but Keith responded sharply anyway.

"Shut up, Lance. I was dodging the laser, you got in the way," he scoffed. Lance only huffed, but you could just tell he was rolling his eyes.

The simulation had been cast in a massive hall on the closest planet to them. They had allied with the inhabitants of this planet and they agreed they could train in the hall.

All paladins directed their lions out of the hall. They landed outside and sat the lions down. Soon enough, everyone had left their cockpits and gathered in the centre of the circle the lions made. Allura and Coran hurried to join them soon after.

"Keith, it was shallow of you to sacrifice your own teammate for your safety," Allura chided. Keith took his helmet off and groaned, letting it dangle loosely, hooked onto his fingers.

"I didn't deliberately let him get shot! I was dodging, just like before, and he decided to jerk backwards and get in the way!" Keith glared accusingly at Lance, but the shit-eating grin he wore made Keith blush and look away.

Shiro sighed. "It doesn't matter. I'd say this session was a partial success anyway. Good job, everyone. Let's get the lions into their hangars and chill out for the rest of the day. I think we've earned it."

~

The rest of the day contained everyone chilling out in their pajamas and watching some stupid Altean comedies that only Coran and Allura could understand.

It was the next day that things started to go badly.

~

Keith, in just his maroon boxers and a baggy black shirt, waddled down to the kitchen early in the morning. His hair a mess and still blinking sleep from his eyes, he said a groggy hello to Hunk and Allura (possibly the only two early morning people on the team) before serving himself up some yellow goo. Apparently Coran tried some new recipe. After his bowl was full, he sat down at the table and lifted a spoonful to his mouth...

But then, suddenly, there was a wrenching pain in his chest. His spoon clattered to the table, goo flying everywhere. Hunk and Allura's attempts to ask him if he was okay were blocked out. Keith could only stare blankly ahead of him.

It felt like...it felt like his heart had just shattered to a million pieces. He could only guess why...Lance had dropped his heart.

Lance...Lance.

That name...provoked anger...not whatever he was feeling before...

Keith finally tuned back in. He looked coldly at Hunk and Allura, eyes dark and expression shadowed but unreadable. A look of utter surprise crossed their faces at how he looked...and his tone.

"I'm fine."


	3. harbouring my words unspoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not even awake five minutes and Lance has already made a terrible mistake. Shut down by Keith because of this, he spends all day in Hunk’s room...until Shiro comes along and inspires him to fix this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dabalabalab

Lance heard footsteps pass outside his door. They were slow and heavy. He guessed it was either Pidge or Keith. Neither of the two were fans of waking up early, but both had trouble sleeping. Well, now Lance was awake too. He wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

Glancing over at the Altean clock, he noted he had a few vargas before he was supposed to be awake. He reached out to grope his dresser for hair gel and facemask. He figured a little Altean beauty care couldn't hurt, right? But when he felt something warm and hard, he yelped in panic and flew out of bed, yanking his arm back. Another yelp escaped him, this time of pain, as his knee knocked the dresser. It wobbled unsteadily and, as it did, he identified what he'd felt. Keith's core stone.

It wobbled with the dresser, getting closer and closer to the edge until-

"SHIT! NO!"  
  


The ruby heart fell to the ground and shattered into thousands of sharp, tiny little red pieces. Lance froze, rooted to the spot in horror. He turned and sprinted out of his door, thankful for the automatic opening. He shot down the hallway, past everyone else's rooms. Shiro poked his head out of the door in confusion as Lance ran past.

Lance took a sharp turn whenever it was necessary until he reached the entrance to the dining room. He skidded to a stop at the doorway and took a deep breath, this time thankful that this door wasn't automatic. What if what he saw inside was exactly what he thought it would be? Lance had no idea how he'd react. He just hoped he hadn't fucked up this time.

He slowly opened the door, poking his head in to hear an icy, spiteful voice.

"I'm fine."

Hunk and Allura spotted Lance and gave him a meaningful look. They were asking him to go and sort his boyfriend out. But how could Lance when he was the one who'd caused the red paladin to be like this? Eventually, Keith turned his head to look at Lance. An angry frown dominated Keith's unreadable expression, but he quickly gained back control and turned back to his breakfast, picking up his spoon. He said only one word, in the same hurtful tone as before.

"Lance."

He acknowledged him. Lance released a deep breath. Hopefully this meant something decent. 

"Keith, I...I'm so sorry! You must be able to tell, I shattered your core stone completely by accident and I really hope this doesn't ruin our relationship because you mean so much to me and I don't want to lose you..." Lance stopped his little rant to stare sorrowfully at Keith. There was silence for a few ticks, before...

"I trusted you, Lance. You broke that trust. So maybe we should take a break." He took a bite of his goo and swallowed, continuing to eat. Lance stood there, face paling. His hands grew shaky as he stood, frozen to the spot. The look on Hunk's face went from staring at Lance in horror, then to angrily glaring at Keith. Both Keith and Allura looked respectably surprised as Hunk stood up, chair scraping behind him as he slammed his hands down on the table.

"How  _dare_ you, Keith Kogane! Lance made a mistake, and now you're blaming him for it! I cannot believe you'd break the poor boy's heart when he was just healing! You're such a cold-hearted moron!" Hunk flung his bowl onto the floor and stormed to the door, turning Lance around and putting his chunky arm around his best friend, who was clearly grateful as Hunk led him out of the dining room and towards the yellow paladin's room.

Just as Lance thought he was over his last breakup. He finally thought that, in a few days, his sapphire would be fixed and he could give it to Keith. It must have broken all over again. He now knew that he loved Keith. But there was no reasoning with the angry boy now, especially with a shattered core stone. Hunk noticed the stressed expression on Lance's face, and rubbed his arm.

"Don't worry, buddy. I know how hard this is for you. Keith's a di- an idiot, okay? I hope you know that." Lance could only manage a nod in response. He was thankful for his all-time best friend being there to comfort him, but it just wasn't enough. He needed Keith to forgive him. He hated the boy being mad at him. No doubt Shiro would be upset too. Great. Was fate just trying to get the whole team to turn against Lance?

Lance sat down on Hunk's bed and suddenly burst into tears, ranting to Hunk the whole story and how sorry he was and how, finally, he knew that he loved Keith.

~

Lance didn't leave Hunk's room all morning. The other teenager had left to go and tell the team that Lance was to be left alone at all costs. Lance had about a two and a half hour long cry, then took a nap. When he woke up roughly fifty doboshes later, her sorted his hair out. Well, I say that, but he didn't really have the will to make himself look good. Then he laid there, on Hunk's bed, for vargas, just staring at the ceiling and thinking about how fucking stupid he was. He didn't move. His legs and arms were numb, but he hardly cared at this point.

It was about a few vargas before dinnertime when Shiro entered Hunk's room. Clearly the black paladin had convinced the cheery guy to let him in, and it had worked. I mean, who can refuse their hunk (pun) of a leader? He was suited up in his armour. He was surprised to see Lance laying there, staring at the ceiling. The Cuban boy still hadn't bothered to go back to his room and get changed, so he was just there in his pajamas.

"Hey, Lance. Keith has been asking after you. He didn't sound very happy-"

"Well, no shit Sherlock! I broke his core stone." Lance's voice was croaky and his throat was scratchy. He hadn't taken a drink in nearly eleven vargas, nor had he bothered to do anything but cry and sleep. He wasn't ready to talk, but he forced the words out anyway. Shiro's grey eyes widened in pure shock.

"Lance...what did you-"

"I fucked up, okay?" Lance finally sat up, dark blue eyes glaring at the elder man angrily, gripping the bedsheets so hard his knuckles went white. "I'm new to this core stone thing! It was an accident! I'm so stupid..." But Shiro wasn't angry. When Lance looked into Shiro's eyes as hard he could, trying to find a hint of anger, all he could find was panic.

"If you didn't break his actual heart and just his core stone, he's going to hate us all! This explains his rude behaviour today! He's going to be far worse than the loner you met before we became the pilots of Voltron!" Shiro rubbed his forehead, staring at Lance and taking a deep breath. He wasn't going to lose his cool over this. It wasn't Lance's fault - it was an accident. He really couldn't blame the teenager for this. "We've got to find a way to fix this."

Lance's eyebrows raised in surprise. "We?"

"Well, I'm not going to let you do it yourself, am I? We're going to have to be really adventurous to do this, Lance. And we can't let the others know. Coran and Allura would look down upon me and I don't want that. Keith would obviously be disapproving, and Hunk would get worried. Pidge? Well, I don't think she'd care but sti-"

"I get it. Top secret." Lance rolled his puffy eyes, still red and bloodshot from crying. Shiro's heart panged sorrowfully for the teenager. He sat on the bed beside Lance.   
"Lance, I promise. I will do anything I can to help you fix Keith's heart. Not just because I know you love him very much, but I love him too. He's like the brother I never had."

Lance let silent tears roll down his cheeks. Shiro had never been like this before. Not to Lance, at least. Lance threw his arms around the black paladin, bursting into sobs. Shiro only hugged Lance back gently, smiling softly. 

"Don't worry, Lance. We  _will_ get Keith back before he goes mad. Or we'll die trying."

~

Lance tore down the hallway, dressed but not wearing his jacket. He'd shoved jeans and a shirt on as well as his boots, and now was desperate to get to the bridge. Shiro had excused himself a varga ago, telling Lance to come up with any ideas he could to get Keith back. And Lance had just clicked. It was utterly mad and he knew it had a high chance of failure, but hey. Didn't Shiro say they'd do anything to get Keith back to normal? Lance sure was prepared to, and something inside him said Shiro was too.

He ran into the bridge, where Shiro was in heavy discussion with Allura. He was in casualwear now, clearly tired of the suit. 

"Shiro!" Lance interrupted. The princess and leader of Voltron jumped, spinning around. Both seemed to calm down when they saw who it was though. Shiro smiled.  
"Sorry, princess. Please excuse me." He gave Allura a soft smile then hurried over to Lance, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the hallway.

"Have you come up with something?"

"Yes! It's super crazy, but I think it might work! Can you go clean up Keith's shards in my room? Put them into the little blue pot on the side and we'll come back to that later. And then meet me in your room! This is important, Shiro!"

~

Lance excitedly ran up to Shiro's room. This was it. He and Keith had barely been broken up for a day and Lance had already devised a plan to get him back. And after some strategic thinking by walking up to the training room and back to the dining room (Shiro took a really long time to clean up...he must have been tidying Lance's whole room!), he'd managed to perfect it. But...

God, would it work?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you cannot stop my headcanon that our ray of sunshine Hunk doesn't swear. he never will. not in this fanfic haha


	4. disregarding consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has gone all day without seeing Lance. He’s also gone all day loathing every member of the team for thinking everything’s normal and fine. Eventually, he consults Red about his problems, but she offers no help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to go back and write chapter summaries for each chapter...ye. okay, two things:  
> 1\. in my draft for the last chapter shiro was a dick to lance but I decided to change that  
> 2\. I’ve been away for so long I have no fuckin clue what lance’s plan was so you’ll have to bear with me

Keith hadn’t seen Lance all day.

If he was being honest, that made him a little calmer. He spoke to the other paladins calmly and didn’t make any sharp comments unless they said something to upset him. After breakfast, he had walked out of the dining room and trailed after Hunk. He did feel a tiny bit bad, but then again his core stone had only recently been shattered. Those feelings were bound to change soon. He saw Hunk exit his room, and the moment he saw Keith his brown eyes flashed sorrowfully. He knew the whole story now, but he didn’t say he was sorry for Keith anything. That had been one messed up rage, in Hunk’s eyes.

“Don’t go in there. Lance needs to be left alone, even if Zarkon launches an attack on us.” His voice was soft, and not nearly as furious as it was a few minutes earlier. Keith responded sharply. “I don’t want to see him anyway.” He tried to speak loudly so Lance would hear him, and then strolled back to his room to sort his hair out and get changed.

After that, Lance was gone until dinner time. Shiro had gone in to talk to him, and had come out looking pretty down. Over dinner, the chat was pretty normal. How well the training was coming along, Pidge making some puns and Hunk harmlessly laughing. It pissed Keith off. How could they be so normal knowing that their red paladin had a broken heart? He stayed put though, contributing to the conversation only when completely necessary. After dinner, he said he was leaving and headed for the red lion hangar. He was aware Shiro and Allura were planning on having a leaders meeting in the bridge, so he made sure to have disappeared quickly. He didn’t want in on that stuff.

He hadn’t seen Lance all day. Which he thought of as a good thing. He loved not seeing the boy he hated most at the moment. But right now, he just wanted to talk to Red.

He climbed into the cockpit, not at all geared up, but Red fired herself up anyway. “Hey, girl. It’s been a rough day.”

’You’re telling me. I can feel when you’re angry, even if I’m off.’

”You’re Altean made. Of course you have psychic powers.”

’I wouldn’t refer to them as psychic, but whatever.’

”I just hate everyone right now. How can they be so normal?”

’Keith, I can tell what you’re feeling but I don’t know what happened. An update would be perfect.’

So, Keith sat there for an hour or two telling his robotic alien warship every single tiny detail of his day. Once he’d finished, he thought he heard Red sigh.

’Well, I didn’t know humans had such a thing as core stones.’

”That’s because Alteans don’t. I had thought it was something that existed for everything, but I guess it’s just a racial thing. And we don’t talk about them because giving someone your core stone is a huge deal. It means you’re committed to them, and they can do whatever the hell they want once they’ve got your core stone.”

’I thought your love was complicated enough when you spoke about the blue paladin before. Now it’s just so much more confusing.’

”I don’t love him any more, Red. That’s what a broken core stone can do. Come on, can we just go for a fly?”

’Sure, but I’m not very good with comforting words.’

”Then don’t speak.”

~

A few seconds later Allura turned towards a bright flashing and a loud beeping from the control panel. In Altean, it read ‘RED LION HAS BEEN DEPLOYED’ in big bold letters. Panicking, the princess glanced up in time to see Keith flying Red out into the depths of space. She was about to connect their comms and ask him what the quiznak he thought he was doing, then thought better of it.

”Don’t get into any trouble out there, Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for a short chapter I just came up with Lance’s idea and I hAve to write it down before I forget


End file.
